REALITY ORIENTATION: There was no KEVLAR in Vietnam. They first used it for belted tires in 1970. The purpose of the helmet was to stop shrapnel; not a rifle bullet.
@@ultramarine3527 soldiers were issued body armour but it was rare to see it being worn as it traps in heat and it would be horrible to wear in Vietnam
As a Vietnam vetran l can tell you , the majority of the helmets we were issued , were from the 40's , 50's and the early 60's . The liners were probably not kevlar as aramid (kevlar) was just starting to be used in car tires to replace nylon and rayon in the belting in the mid 60's . 7.62 x 39 was used in the ak 47 and the sks during that time.
The liners were a resin stiffened fiberglass composite, not meant to have any ballistic defense, just to allow the steel pot to sit comfortably on your head. When not in combat you wore the liner. It was the same as used in WWII.
That's a 1980s M1. These are what they looked like at the end of their service life; woodland cover, quick detach chinstrap, new post-vietnam liners and steel shells made in the last batch in the late 1960s. Typically would have an elastic cat-eye band around it as well.
What I found interesting about the helmet's history is that they say it was shot with a 45. ACP at point-blank range during testing and stopped it. I don't know if it is accurate history or not, but I'm guessing it was fired at the same distance in the video and somehow stopped it. They also say that among US casualties wearing the helmet, 54 percent of rounds that hit failed to penetrate and saved the life of the soldier or saved him from injury.
@@jimmymarsh2489both rounds will go through a car door. Remember that inside a door there are other objects that may stop the round from making a full penetration. Mainly the motor that controls the window.
They were intended to protect you from flack, shrapnel not direct hits from bullets. Liners were made out of fiberglass and were used as parade headwear and hold the helmet to the head comfortably. I’m a Vietnam vet from 1972-1973. Thanks for your great videos.
Still though most steel helmets from that era would reliably stop a single 9x19 or .45 ACP. The US Army had a training video in WW2 that told soldiers to not bother using the .45 ACP on German helmets.
Here's a little liner trivia for you. Back in the day you were issued the leather sweat band during basic training, and sized it to your head, and it went with you to wherever you were stationed. The actual helmet and liner would be issued as part of TA50. The sweat band had to be marked with your name and SSN, as did your boots, belts, etc. Never know what part of somebody might be all that's left, so it all got marked. Wouldn't surprise me if the sweat band you have in that helmet was marked with somebody's name and SSN. You could always unclip it, take it out, and have a look.
9:08 Yes, the 7.62 X 39 round completed development in 1948 and was used in the AK-47 assault rifle by the Viet Cong and North Vietnam regulars throughout the Viet Nam war. The U.S. began this war with the M-14 using the 7.62 X 61 NATO round, but the M16 assault rifle using the 5.56 X 45 round replaced the M14 starting in 1965.
@@ocelotrevolver674 Admittedly I'm not old enough (or the correct nationality) to have been in the Vietnam War, but it's a long time since anyone called me a kid!
@General grievous no sí eso lo sé pero hay datos que meda pereza esforzarme en traducirlo y cuando escucho al mexicano hablar en inglés pues me pongo de mal humor porque digo: porque no habla en español el man xd
Also many weapons were captured, and early in the war they even made their own crude weapons like shotguns and submachine guns. The NVA wasn't widely equipped with AK-47's till later in the war, 1966-67
That helmet was the best helmet design in the world, and the most widely issued with the German Stahlhelm being a very close second. Both shared excellent side and rear protection from side impact, but the US design was superior in that it had the removeable liner, making the steel sheel into a very useable field bucket. Also, the liner added superior impact absorption and increased preotection from penetration. There are anecdotal stories of direct bullet impacts that were deflected upwards, over th op of the interior space between the shell and liner. The liner was made of a resin impregnated cloth fiber. Sort of a precursor to fiberglass. It was pretty tough, and allowed the shell to be made in One Size Fits All dimensions. The German helmet came in 5 sizes. Maybe thats one reason the Germans looked so sharp, ay? The shell was made from "special" steel, called Hadfield steel, which was harder, but flexible to both reists and deflect shrapnel, or small caliber fire, such as from a pistol of those days. The German helmet was also made of Hadfield steel, but because it wsas not as round it did not defect as well, nor did it have a liner, the suspension being riverted directly to the single wall shell.
The German ww2 helmet was actually the best helmet in the world… WAS the skirt that ran around the helmet protected the neck and head the most from shrapnel
@@Gunsnstuff26 The German helmet is iconic and very good, but, the US M-1 helmet came down the sides as far as the German design as it was adjustable, and almost as far in the rear, but allowed a little clearance in the prone position, whereas the German helmet did not. There are many photos of American soldiers and marines only needing to raise their heads to see forward and many pics of Germans having to bend at the back to do so because of the low flange that blocked the neck. Thus, they often had to put their upper body into jeopardy. That's one of the reasons later German helmets were "trimmed" up as well as saving material. As far as ballistic protection, the American M-1 helmet has been proven superior in small caliber tests. It's on RU-vid if you do a search. It is a fact that the American Army in WW2 was the best equipped, most mobile/mechanised, best fed, and healthiest army in history up to that time from boots and bullets, to tooth brushes, to chewing gum. And, the US industrial base was capable of supplying a substantial amount of equipment to allies, plus the country could have fielded another 11 million men easily. Our fortunate geographical position afforded us time to make sure the gear we sent to the troops was the best we could make given the budgets, which were large. The nations of Europe and Asia did not have that luxury, and the Germans went with a very old helmet and boot design - not to mention the old bolt action rifle. By the end of the war, they had switched to an American style boots and semi-auto rifles where they could.
@@OutnBacker Right, The M1 was better for protecting being shot, but because the skirt on the german helmet protected the neck and head it was better for shrapnel. And yes i 100% agree with you that the us had the strongest and most advanced army for that time.😁
The liner of the helmet is made from resin and cotton. The resin is what makes it hard. A lot of times when you see soldiers parading the usually wear the liners instead of metal part of the helmet.this was to refuse the weight.
My friend's dad had an NVA bullet enter his helmet from the left front but it was going at an upward angle and parallel with the left side of his helmet. It followed the inside curve of the helmet all the way around back and came out the right side after doing an almost 180 turn inside the helmet. Unfortunately it entered his right shoulder and messed up his mobility of his right hand. It is almost exactly like Bob Dole's hand if you're old enough to remember who he is. Odd thing though - he was right handed before and had to switch to left handed, and he became a really good artist, having no artistic ability as a right hander. Which is super odd because the left hemisphere of the brain is what controls the right side of the body and is responsible for artistic abilities. But switching to the left hand would stimulate the right side of the brain, not the artistic left side. Just goes to show you how amazing an adaptive our brains are. FYI, he's a retired teacher in his late 60's living the good life and doing art, so turned out good in an odd way. He's one of the nicest, gentlest people you'll ever meet too.
I was in the Nam in the 60's The helmet was steel the Liner was fiberglass and yes the 762x39 in the SKS and AK 47 were standard NVA issue. The steel pot was more for pieces of mortar and rocket frags then direct rounds not to mention half cooking your brain in the tropics
The primary reason of helmets has been to stop shrapnel for years, since world war 1. Some of the only helmets designed to stop bullets and that were actually used are the soviet maska-1 and Altyn from the first Chechen war
The Vietnamese had The Type-56 AK, and SKS, The SVD, The Type-53 Mosin Nagant, the PPSH, and The TT-33 Tokarev modified to hold 11 rounds instead of 8.
They also had anything they could get their hands on, like guns captured from french, american and south vietnamese troops. So basically any Soviet, Chinese, French or American weapon from WW1 to the Vietnam war era. They also had weapons from the Japanese left over from when they occupied Indochina during ww2.
Steel pot comes in one size, while the inner helmet comes in multiple sizes. The inner helmet is the fitting helmet. It was done to cheapen production. One size steel pot fitted with a plastic type liner
I think this goes without saying but these helmets were meant more for deflecting shrapnel from artillery fire and explosives and it’s pretty much known if you get a bullet to the helmet it’s going right through to your skull unless it skims the side. Still, cool stuff!
Regardless of the material, anything with layers will actually be effective. Closer the layers the more effective. Unless the material is brittle like concrete.
The helmet are supposed to stop small arms fire, grenade/bomb fragments, ricochets or glancing hits by rifles, not dead on hits by rifles or high caliber pistols.
It is called a helmet liner and you wear it under the steel helmet. This allows the steel helmet to be used for cooking etc. You also use the helmet liner for dress presentations and display.
They write your azs up if they caught you cooking in them. Because that burned off the paint that was toxic then you would eat and Get sick. So we would take one from the arven troops and burn them so they didn't have paint. They told us the helmet was good for washing your socks in the field. And to hold water to shave.
As a soldier who was trained in the use of the very same steel pot helmet, I disagree. US Army, 1976-1980. Boiling water, frying eggs, digging a ditch, clubbing an enemy were all legit uses of the pot. Oh, you could wear it on your head, too! No way in the world that boiling water is going to embrittle ANY grade of steel, let alone the medium carbon steel of the pot. It was made ductile so you could hammer out a deep dent and re-use the thing! The liner is kept dry, but that's so the cotton straps don't rot and the snaps don't rust; the fiberglass liner was water-proof. Do your research, civvies!
I used the steel helmet for a basin to use when I shaved in the base area, I've heard that some folks when up near the Z, were at some base and did not have their mess gear with them, and had to use the steel pot as a mess tin to collect the food, and they did do it, as opposed to going hungry.
@@pirobot668beta it sure was done, but the helmet steel is given specific characteristics when stamped (the plastic deformation is leaving a kind of stress in the material) which make it good at absorbing impacts (what a coincidence ;) ) Heating the pot slowly and making it cool slowly releases that stress, and make it slightly more ductile (you english speaking guys call it annealing) heating the pot (to fry eggs for example) and then putting it to cool quickly into water will again release the inner stress to build a different one, hence changing the helmet balistic-proofness (it's like a shitty uncontrolled light heat treatment). Are these changes enough to make the helmet useless against shrapnel and small caliber ? It depends of how much you heat your steel, for how long, and how much you like to hear the "ppppsssssshh" when you cool it in water. Probably not good because it's not to the maker's specs anymore, but isn't enough to make it really brittle or useless Oh i'm an aeronautical metallurgy Engineer btw, so my source is literally : dude trust me
The liner is not made Kevlar. According to Wikipedia : These liners were made of strips of cotton cloth bathed in phenolic resin and draped in a star shape over a liner-shaped mold, where they were subjected to pressure to form a liner.
2 года назад
The vietnam era hard cap liner was made from ballistic nylon
Edwin, the liner for that helmet is Nylon, not kevlar. In WW2, the liner was resin duck cloth, then it was changed to Nylon in Vietnam. Not meant to offer ballistic protection but just a lighter, more durable, and modern material for the helmet liner.
The nylon switch supposedly increased its ballistic resistance by roughly 15% I think, the simple history video on it talked about it.
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well the ballistic nylon liner gave some extra protection, not meant to be weared as a stand alone helmet, but in the video it pancaked the 9mm and 45 acp
That's an 1980s helmet cover, and before someone rogers up, no this cover (Woodland) was not used in Vietnam, you're thinking of ERDL. The liner is not Kevlar, it is only meant to provide a suspension for the wearer..
I think the helmet liner was made of fiberglass. Often, the liner alone was used a headgear when it was repainted with a distinctive color and unit symbols. Also, that helmet cover is NOT from Vietnam. That is the reversible Woodland pattern which came out after the War and used in the 70's and 80's. The Vietnam cover was a non-reversible, very light green color with no brown patterns. No part of the helmet assembly was Kevlar.
they aren't his grandparents belongings, if you believed this dude you'd think he was shooting a helmet used during the crucifixion of Christ, which of course his grandfather wore
Italian Police never used that Beretta model, less than less in .32ACP, until the late 70s they uses a Mod.34, which was in cal 9mm short (9x17) or .380ACP, then they moved to Mod92s (M9 in the USA) cal 9x19 Luger. Maybe that Beretta is the same that your grandfather used while in Vietnam along with that helmet ?
“My grandpa brought this back from the war.” 🤣 Yeah right! And my grandpa brought back a naked purple signing leprechaun! And that’s not kevlar that’s fiberglass it’s a liner. A lot of misinformation. Pinocchio needs to keep it real.
The point of the helmet is to stop shrapnel from explosives not bullets the liner is fiberglass and the helmet is steel The helmet will crack almost instantly when fired at
Hello Edwin, I've seen in a couple of movies that a bunch of grenades are tied or kept together and only pin of a single grenade is pulled out though all other grenades go off together. What's the real life possibility of that. I would love a video on that. Love your videos. Keep making such videos. 💪
In ww2, the liner was made by compressed paper, later in the 1951 the big picture demostrtion of the m1 helmet, the liner was made of plastic and in Vietnam it was made by nylon , not kevlar.
The inner linner (inner hull)is made of bakelite (baquelita, for it's mame in spanish), not keblar or fiber glass. It is to insulate the head from the heat of the sun. Take care guys.
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esta hecho de nylon balistico comprimido con resina, al menos los gorros duros (liners) de la era de Vietnam
A .45 ACP pistol bullet may not penetrate, but it will still give the wearer a severe headache, if not a concussion. FWIW, the WWII liner shell was fiberglass.
Y'all should do a give away of some of the more intact bullets y'all catch! I love catching bullets like that and I'd love to get a piece of the history y'all make!
Yes, they had 7.62x39 in Vietnam. The NVA, Viet Cong, and other elements of the National Liberation Front made heavy use of SKS and AK rifles like the one you're holding, of course they used 7.62x39 lmao
